Five cities. Four gardens. Three states. Two generations. One shared love of food.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

It's been a great Christmas so far - stockings, presents, movies and soon enough, dinner. As per tradition, we're doing a prime rib roast.

Another tradition in my family is the Christmas Eve meal - cracked dungeness crab, sourdough bread and a good Monterey Jack cheese. Last night we added a few more cheeses to the rotation (Brillat-Savarin, an aged Australian cheddar, and young Spanish Mahon), made fresh fruit salad for dessert and may have enjoyed a super yummy rose Champagne (yes, I'm taking the french approach to pregnancy, in which women don't have to be persecuted for the odd glass of wine they drink).

But the coolest part of the dinner were the two dipping sauces we concocted for the crab (in addition to some melted butter). One was a mayo spiked with Old Bay and the other was a homemade cocktail sauce. The cocktail sauce was so good, I'm going to share it here. The next time you're having some chilled crab or shrimp, make this up from scratch (in a few minutes) and impress the hell out of your friends.